A COUPLE whose baby daughter died while she slept between them were not to blame for the tragedy, a coroner told them yesterday.

Powys coroner Geraint Williams returned an open verdict into the death of Angharad Eleanor Phillips of Newtown, a four-and-a-half-month-old baby, who was found by her father David Phillips with her head face down in a pillow at her home on June 12 this year.

Mr Williams said it was the most tragic and heart-wrenching set of circumstances to deal with.

Sharon Evans told the inquest, at Llandrindod Wells Magistrates' Court, that she woke up to hear her husband screaming and he had tried to resuscitate their baby, her third child, but she was dead.

She said, "We didn't know what to do, I really don't understand why she died."

Mr Phillips said they had usually placed the baby in a carry cot in a cot, and on this occasion he had taken her out when she had woken up at around 7am, changed her and had played with her.

He said, "She was laughing and giggling, then I put her on Sharon's breast to feed, and when she had had enough I put her between us in the bed."

He said he watched some television in another room, had a cigarette then returned to bed and had fallen asleep.

"When I woke up I saw Angharad was on her front on her face, I'd never seen her on her face before and I knew something was wrong."

Dr Edgar Lazla, a consultant paediatric pathologist from the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, who carried out a post-mortem, said the examination had failed to reveal a cause of death.

He said there was no evidence of any injury, apart from a small amount of bleeding in the neck, which was present in most babies who die suddenly, and no suggestion of any natural disease.

He said her lungs were quite congested.

He said he struggled to draw the line between concluding whether it was Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or an unascertained death.